Technical Lead

The National Restaurant Association and National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation are proud to be part of a highly respected industry, providing hospitality, opportunity, and quality of life. And much like the industry we represent, we have a dynamic, diverse, and inclusive culture, grounded in trust, hospitality, collaboration, and innovation. These are the core values that inspire our work, and what we are looking for in a Technical Lead, to serve as the primary owner of team-level technical outcomes, including code quality, application design, technical sequencing, and delivery health.

As the Technical Lead you will be responsible for providing technical leadership at the application and team level. With one foot in hands-on software development and one foot in system design, you will ensure that solutions are well-engineered, maintainable, and aligned with established architectural standards.

In addition, you will be accountable for technical decision-making within the delivery team, mentoring engineers, and translating architectural direction into high-quality, working software. While this role does not own enterprise or platform architecture, it will partner closely with Architecture to ensure alignment and effective execution.

This role operates from our Chicago office, following our hybrid work structure with a required three days onsite, Monday - Wednesday and remote days Thursday and Friday.

We are proud to offer our team members comprehensive benefits, designed to support their financial, professional, and personal well-being. In addition to outstanding healthcare coverage (medical, dental and vision), competitive salaries, generous vacation and leave time, we offer a matching 401(k) plan, a unique collection of corporate discounts and memberships, as well as programs to support career and skills development, including learning and tuition assistance, and so much more.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership and Design

• Own application-level and team-level technical design decisions ensuring solutions are reliable, scalable, secure, and maintainable.
• Design and evolve system components within established enterprise and cloud architecture standards.
• Evaluate technical tradeoffs including performance, quality, scalability, and time-to-market.
• Escalate cross-domain, platform, or enterprise-impacting design decisions to Architecture.
• Remain actively involved in development through coding, reviews, and technical problem solving.
• Establish and enforces coding standards, patterns, and best practices.
• Lead by example in writing testable, maintainable, and well-documented code.
• Champion automation, CI/CD, testing, and operational readiness.
• Ensure non-functional requirements such as security, performance, and observability are addressed during development.
• Proactively identify and manage technical debt.
• Partner with Product and Scrum roles to translate requirements into executable technical plans.
• Own technical sequencing and provide input into scope, prioritization, and risk tradeoffs.
• Act as the technical escalation point for the team during delivery.

Mentorship and Team Development

• Mentor engineers and support their technical and professional growth.
  * Build a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement.
  * Develop future technical leaders by progressively delegating responsibility.

Decision Boundaries

• The Tech Lead owns application-level design decisions, engineering practices, code quality, and delivery health. Enterprise and platform architecture decisions are owned by Architecture. The Tech Lead operates within established standards and escalates decisions that exceed application or team scope.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree is required in information technology, computer science or related fields or equivalent knowledge and/or work experience.
• Proven hands-on software development and design experience.
• Ability to lead technical decisions and mentor engineers.
• Experience balancing delivery speed with long-term maintainability.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills.
• Proven expertise in .NET, C#, and ASP.NET.
• Strong full-stack development experience across front-end, backend, and data layers.
• Proficiency in working with SQL databases and database design.
• Experience with cloud computing, particularly Microsoft Azure services.
• Familiarity with microservices architecture, service oriented and event driving architecture.
• Experience with design patterns like repository, command, etc.
• Knowledge of testing frameworks, CI/CD practices, and source control systems.
• Understanding of security principles and best practices for web applications.
• Reliable, self-motivated, and focused on high quality delivery of work products; willing to accept responsibility and accountability.
• Strong interpersonal and diplomacy skills.
• Highly effective time management, organizational, problem-solving and priority setting skills.
• Strong technical and business aptitude.
• Exceptional analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Significant communication skills in written and verbal formats; showcasing clear and concise manner.
• Flexible and resilient; able to thrive in fast-paced environment.
• Ability to work independently or as part of a team.
• Computer proficiency across MS Office, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Ability to learn new technology platforms as needed.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The National Restaurant Association, National Restaurant Association Solutions, LLC, and The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (together, "Company") is committed to equal employment opportunity, and it is Company's policy to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

It is our policy to recruit, hire, train, and promote persons in all job titles, and ensure that all other personnel actions are administered, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status and disability, or other legally protected status, and we will ensure that all employment decisions are based only on valid job requirements.

This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.

For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.